Most NASCAR shops sit silent this Wednesday (April 1), locked under the stay-at-home order of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Preparing race cars is certainly nonessential within a state straining from the weight of the coronavirus epidemic.
But while most of NASCAR is based around Charlotte, there’s at least one team able to turn wrenches in their small race shop sitting down in Spartanburg, S.C. Underdog independent Jeremy Clements hopes the advantage helps turn a disappointing 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series season around.
According to Clements, his team — four full-time employees deep — is still facing the battle of making an income without racing due to COVID-19. But, in a state without such limited restrictions, at least all of them can still come to work.
“If others team can’t work, we shouldn’t be able to work either, to be fair,” Clements told Frontstretch. “On the flip side of that, we’re just doing random, little stuff now: cleaning the shop, organizing, I don’t know how much racecar stuff is being done at the moment. We’re getting cars ready slowly, and we really don’t know what cars to get ready, because I don’t know when we’re going to race again.”
“There are some things we want to do that we can’t do, so that puts us behind, but you’ve got to make the best out of the circumstances,” Clements said. “The engine shop [Clements Racing Engines] is still going, they’re still working too. I don’t know the exact number, there’s probably 18 employees in there. The problem with that is a lot of the places that you get your pistons, different things, they’re shut down. It’s just affecting everything everywhere, unfortunately.”
See more at Frontstretch.